Description

The Woodcock (Scolopax Rusticola)

The Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola), Fig. 121,belonging to the subfamily of Scolopacinae or Snipes, is about 14 in. long, and weighs from 13 to 15 oz. It is of a brown colour of various shades, darkest on the back, the tail black, tipped with grey above. The Wood-cock arrives in England in October, and leaves again in March or April. It frequents woods and thickets where there are watercourses, visiting swamps in order to find the worms and larvae of insects, which it obtains by thrusting the bill into the earth.